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An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

Creative Quiz Answer to #7

If you read my column in this morning's paper, took the quiz I offered up and are here for some answers -- thanks for being game and for your openness.

My purpose in creating the quiz, to test your knowledge of the close-to-the-ground, indepenedent voices and enterprises that are so defining to our creative community was not to give anyone a hard time. My goal was to point out just how much is really going on in that strata of the creative community -- the strata that is so central to the arguments being made by art-loving civic leaders who are more likely to frequent the Milwaukee Art Museum or the Stiemke Theater than the Portrait Society or Fasten Collective.

The quiz was not intended to be all inclusive, to be representative of the whole creative community. But it is, I believe, a good gauge of how well we know the part of the "creative class" that gives oure region its creative energy and identity.

Summing it up: How did you do?

Fifteen or more? You are doing pretty well and are probably part of the community I'm trying to describe.

Ten or more? Congrats, you've experienced some wonderful things in our region but also have a lot left to discover.

Less than that? Truthfully, you've got some homework to do.

But even if you failed miserably, there's good news. The homework is not only painless -- it's a joy. There's some great discoveries to be had.

As for my part, I will do my best to be a resource, and I hope you will come back to Art City. And I'll start by sharing some quiz answers. I thought I'd tackle one or two a day -- my way of luring you into the Art City habit. And I'll start with:

7. Who is Janet Zweig?

Answer: Janet is a Brooklyn-based artist who is currently working on one of the most important public art commissions in several years for the City of Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Avenue Corridor project. Some of her recent projects include a 1200-foot frieze at the Prince Street subway station in New York City, sculptures for a bridge in St. Louis and a system-wide interactive project for the light rail train stations in Minneapolis. One of my favorite pieces is a train station flip sign that creates a new sentence everytime the door to a journalism school is opened.

Why Janet matters: Zweig's work by its nature can make a case for what public art can be. Her mechanized sculptures she created for the Minneapolis light rail system, for example, gather strangers together to probe and tinker with the artworks. A pull of a crank or the push of a button activates things like windshield wipers, a doorbell, a telephone or a revolving snow globe. And each of the works play series of short audio or video artworks by some of that region's most interesting artists. The public interacts with each other and the art, and they have a direct experience with the works of local artists to boot. Compare that to the plop art down by the Brady Street bridge, and you start to get the picture.

Another reason the project matters: Another study will be created as part of the Wisconsin Ave. project. It is designed to help Milwaukee create a public art master plan.

The back story: We have a pretty old-fashioned view of what public art is here. More often than not, we define "public" as meaning outside, where the public is. We are so behind the times, in fact, that a national conference of the Public Art Network a few years ago looked at Milwaukee as a case study for how not to administer public art. Over the years, studies have been commissioned and consultants hired to assess the pubic art possibilities here, and most of those plans continue to gather dust.

Janet and the Fonz: Do you think the flap over the bronze Fonz was just a Fonz-as-public-art debate? That's an over simplification, to say the least. It was, again, not unlike the efforts currently under consideration, about the well-intentioned efforts of civic leaders who were unconscious about the context. Please read my column on the public art hubub of that time.

Where things stand: Janet is still working on her concept. Some of the materials she was hoping to use have become less affordable in this economy, which has slowed things up a bit.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists.

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